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October 4, 2005
Women And Girls Last?
Averting the Second Post-Katrina Disaster
Hurricane Katrina is an American story, as yet untold, and as much about women and men as it is about race and class. It was low-income African American women, many of them single mothers, whose pleas for food and water were broadcast around the world; women, more than men, who were evacuated (or not) from nursing homes; and women, more than men, whose precarious "escape" was made with infants, children and elders in tow. Conversely, we know from other disasters that women will also be at the heart of the city's rebirth and the emotional center of gravity for others on the long road to the "new normal". It is often said that men rebuild structures while women reweave the social fabric of life - and women along this hard-hit coast will surely stitch the quilts, tell the stories, organize the memorials, and sing the songs of Katrina.
In the dreary months ahead, women's domestic burdens will be exceptional ... and exceptionally invisible. The challenges of "homemaking" are vastly more difficult in a FEMA trailer, a friend's apartment or the basement of a church. Nothing will change in a hurry as women pack and unpack, stand in line at relief centers and home furnishing stores, and move from place to place with distracted partners, bewildered children, pets, and whatever possessions they might have managed to retain. Displaced families will stay with generous strangers and relatives for longer periods of time than anyone now imagines. When the funds dry up, and thousands fall between the (gaping) cracks of our disaster relief systems, women will labor behind the scenes. However, they will also labor on the new front lines, serving Katrina survivors as teachers, crisis workers, counselors, health care providers, and community leaders of all kinds. Many will struggle to reach through the stony silence of the men in their lives -- men who turn to drugs and alcohol or even violence with so much now beyond their control. Already, we have heard of the suicides of police officers and other men in New Orleans.
Press accounts from the grotesque world of the Superdome - a woman held at gunpoint, a woman raped and then a child - point to the persistence of "normal" gender violence in exceptional times. Echoing conditions from disasters around the globe, no mechanisms are in place to locate and help displaced survivors of both Katrina and gender violence. Women and children who might have already been displaced at a battered women's shelter, now closed by Katrina, will struggle to find their way, as crisis workers struggle to locate and assist them. Double-shifts and long commutes will soon be the norm, leaving teenaged girls and their younger sisters all the more vulnerable in their mothers' absence to sexual violence at the hands of men known and unknown.
The mothers, wives and daughters of oystermen, shrimp farmers and oil riggers, like low-waged women in tourism and service jobs, will need skills training, income supplementation, child care assistance, and transportation, as well as affordable and safe housing. The poorest of the poor before Katrina -- socially marginalized women of color (especially single heads of household) -- will be the last to escape the confines of FEMA tent-cities and other encampments. Although most public housing residents, residents of mobile homes, renters, and those lacking insurance are female, ensuring affordable housing for low income, single mothers will not be a priority in the rush to rebuild. With their finely balanced networks of survival torn apart by Katrina, it will be the poorest women who will most need help; but will the short-term emergency relief-work now being proposed reach them? Will "youth employment" recovery-projects work as well for their teenaged daughters as for their sons? Following hurricane Andrew, Women Will Rebuild Miami (a coalition born the day funds went to rebuilding the Chamber of Commerce rather than child care centers) struggled unsuccessfully for months to earmark just 10 percent of relief funds for girls and women.
The resulting disaster of women and girls falling between the gaps can be averted along the Gulf Coast. Steps taken now can make girls and women safer, ensure that mental health services reach men effectively, promote women's economic recovery, provide respite care and support for long-term caregivers - the list goes on. In the many "Drawers of Unused Plans and Unlearned Lessons", policy-makers will find checklists and guidelines for responding with protocols that include gender-awareness... but will they do so?
Will they even take the simple step of tracking the flow of relief monies to women and men, respectively?
Most urgently, women must be fully engaged in the national debates about the future of the region, as much as men are. The coming commissions, hearings, and community meetings must be conducted in ways and in places open to women, with child-care and transportation available as needed. The nation must hear from those most hard-hit, and men - and other women - must learn to listen.
Advocating for gender equality in rebuilding does not deny our common humanity in crisis but does ensure that both the women and men of the Gulf Coast will be helped and will be heard.
"Building back better" must be more than an abstract goal if the region and nation are to be more resilient to future disasters. A great city cannot leave the poor poorer and women less able than they are today to anticipate, prepare for, survive, cope with, and recover from the next storm. With grassroots women in the lead, we can and must do better.
Posted by Elaine Enarson at October 4, 2005 08:29 PM
Hey, Elaine,
Is the claim Michael makes above that there is already gender parity in the composition of all the committees making decisions about post-disaster relief and rebuilding correct? I want to use your editoral at a workshop, coz it is so good, but I don't want to be blindsided. Maybe you could give your readers some tips on how we can monitor gender mainstreaming in these on-going processes? I know the UN has templates for this, but it's not always easy to figure out: how to apply them domestically, what information is accessible, or where it is kept.
Laura
Posted by: Laura at October 21, 2005 09:44 AM
Thank you, Elaine, and the Women's Funding Network, for keeping the rest of us informed about serious issues like this. I have my own concerns I keep current about, and being able to read about your research and informed opinion keeps me knowledgeable.
Thanks, Cathy
Posted by: Cathy at October 9, 2005 09:31 AM
Your story tugged at my heart, please continue to let woman know the whole truth about what is really going on. We are the backbone of this country as well as in other countrys. Its time, we take a stand. For our children, for woman and for what is right. I beleive if we don't do something all that is good will be lost. Thank you, Terrie Collins
Posted by: terrie collins at October 7, 2005 02:51 PM
First, a comment on the comment... there are women who abuse but it is not equal. Men are the abusers of both boys and girls ... much more than women. I am not saying women don't abuse but the majority of abuse is done by men. And men make for the most part make the laws. As a survivor of abuse I have researched this subject ad nasuem... and the laws favor the men rather than the suvivors/victims.
Second, to the issue of disasters and gender... it seems that the only way the poor have a chance to get help is to be involved in a disaster. Otherwise, you just limp along the best you can... and try to make things work for yourself. I am married and my husband and I are both disabled. I have been trying to get a degree so that I can try to do better but unless you lose everything to a disaster or are a woman without a husband.. you cannot get help.
And I have paid my taxes in the past and it seems I cannot get anything but a hard time.
So, I will continue to fight and get out of where I am whether I get help from the government or not...
Posted by: Linda at October 7, 2005 02:39 PM
First off, I want to say, not just Hurricane Katrina or even Hurricane Rita are the fault of our government. They are part of weather patterns that happen on this planet. Theirfore, our government actually has not reason what so ever to have to even give one single penny to help those who are displaced in any manor because of these storms. Everyone, men, women and their children should just be happy that our govenment even offers them any assistance at all to help them out, while the rest of the country tax payers are having to work and pay even more taxes to pay for it. Yet I have not seen even one single person, man or woman thank the american public for what their tax money is doing to help them with.
Second, when it comes to having these committees on helping to decided how best to help others and rebuild areas severally damaged, there are almost equal amounts of sexes on the committee. Men and Woman. So to say that woman are once again being discriminated against is so wrong. And to state that they need to have open meetings where the public can give input on how to rebuild and to help those, this is so right, and should be done, but in no way should we expect our government to have to pay for these people to put their children in child care while they attend these meetings. This is something the parent alone needs to be responsible for. Same goes for those men and woman who need to use child care when they go to work. If a woman does not feel safe leaving their daughters home alone with a male in charge of them, then no one is stopping them from putting their daughter in child care. Plus to make it look as if it is only men who sexually abuse your children is way out of line also. Because there are almost just as many woman who sexually abuse children too, so when it comes to these things, we can not place all the blame on the male population. Everyone should always leave their children with someone who they feel safe with leaving in charge of their children and their safety and if you don't know the person well enough, don't leave your children with that person.
Thanks for reading my opinion on this topic.
Posted by: Michael at October 7, 2005 02:12 PM
